Gardaí investigating the death of Daniel Aruebose have arrested a woman in her 20s on suspicion of murder.
The investigation was upgraded from a missing person inquiry to a case of suspected homicide earlier this month.
The woman is the first person to be arrested as part of the homicide investigation.
Gardaí believe the boy was killed in 2021, when aged 3½ years, and his remains buried in open ground just outside Donabate, north Co Dublin.
READ MORE
“As part of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Daniel Aruebose, gardaí have this morning arrested a woman aged in her 20s on suspicion of murder,” the Garda Press Office said in a statement on Monday.
“She is currently detained under provisions of section four of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at a Garda station in the Dublin region.”
No further comment would be made, the office said, and the investigation is continuing.
The upgrading of the investigation to a homicide inquiry on December 11th – in advance of what would have been Daniel’s eighth birthday – meant the investigation team acquired greater powers for securing search warrants and court orders.
It allows them to seek legal permission to access phones and social media accounts and to check messages and phone calls in recent years.
[ Daniel Aruebose: What do we know about his short life, and what happens next?Opens in new window ]
Concern for Daniel’s wellbeing first emerged in August. Officials carrying out checks on a social welfare payment linked to him could find no evidence of his whereabouts or that he was alive.
The officials took their concerns to Tusla, the child and family agency, which escalated the matter to the Garda. An investigation was started and two key witnesses told gardaí Daniel had been dead for more than four years and his remains buried just outside Donabate.
One of the two took gardaí to a location off Portrane Road and pointed out what they said was Daniel’s burial ground. Though the information was not completely accurate, gardaí discovered the boy’s remains very close by after an operation lasting more than two weeks.
That was in September. Earlier this month, the investigation identified a person suspected to be the prime mover in the boy’s death.
A focus of the inquiry by a team based at Swords Garda station, north Dublin, was that the suspect and a close accomplice had been living a chaotic lifestyle that impacted on the level of care given to young Daniel.
Statements were taken from a number of people who knew the boy and other people he was with around the time of his death, leading to concern he may have been subject to mistreatment or neglect.
Two key witnesses have told gardaí Daniel died from natural, though unexplained, causes and after their efforts to revive him failed, they claimed they panicked and secretly buried his body. Their accounts are understood to have, at times, not aligned.
Two people speaking to gardaí since the investigation began maintained their communication with the investigation team even though one has been living abroad for some time.
